hi my name is Amy Howard today I'm going to show you how to be able to create one of the fastest-growing trends that you're going to notice in the interior design industry right now and that's lacquer years ago designers would have to take furniture to their local automobile shop and have it lacquered but unfortunately that could cost upwards 300 to 600 dollars for a piece of furniture now we've made it easy with Amy Howard at-home lacquers to be able to do it yourself in your own home there are a couple of things that you can remember when you're getting ready to do your lacquer project one you can have a lot of fun to be able to pick your colors we have 21 colors available for those being metallic so when you're choosing that piece you do want to be able to make a decision where you're going to be working on your project I would say that it's best to do it in the garage it needs to be in a ventilated area I would not work on it inside your home one of the little tricks that I have is for you to be able to use a clothing bag just unzip it you want to get the extra wide ones that way you can place your piece inside it and it acts as a mini spray boot so on this little piece these were actually some chairs that we got at a thrift store for $15 and they already have a great sheen to them they've actually they've been shellacked so there's no need for me to use my primer primers are really important if you're going to be working on a piece that has a grain to it the primer has a sanding sealer and a leveling agent in it with white paint so that sets it up it allows you to be able to lightly sand it with 400 sandpaper in between coats to get it ready for your lacquer so on this particular project I don't have to use my primer but I do suggest it on other pieces that you might be lacquering but I do need to clean this piece first so I'm going to take the heat off that I've already unscrewed and you're going to have grime dirt grease that's going to be on a piece over a period of time what I recommend using is a degreaser now you'll need to be sure and notice on a lot of the containers that you'll see at your local hardware stores that they will say concentrate we need to make sure that we we cut it with water if it says concentrate on it you don't want to use the solid degreaser if it needs to be cut with water so I've cut this with 50% water and I'm going to use a lint-free rag and come back and clean my piece really really well it's also really important when you're going to be cleaning it using a degreaser to allow it to dry a lot of people think well I've just cleaned it but it's still kind of wet so I want to make sure and come back and make sure that I've dried it really well with another rag so after I've dried my piece well I'm actually ready for my color now that the most fun part of this is picking the color that you want your piece to come in because the lacquers are so easy to use the hardest decision is going to probably be what what color am I going to be able to do the lacquer so once you've done that you want to make sure that you shake it vigorously at least for two or three minutes each can of lacquer is going to cover that 18 square feet of surface area so on this particular chair I'm really only going to need one can of lacquer it's easily going to take care of it so I've just taken it very well you'll notice that the nozzle it's a patented nozzle that sprays in a fan direction most paints break hands are going to have a circle and that's not going to give you as pretty a finish the other thing that you need to remember this is your paint brush this can is going to give you the ability to be able to have a wonderful John this piece but it's not like putting on hairspray and I use that analogy and my husband thinks it's so funny but you think about when women spray their hair it's this action it's all over the place that's not how we're going to lacquer piece of furniture it's very methodical we make sure that it's nice and tight we want to stay around five to six inches from our piece but it's not everywhere because what's going to happen that's going to be overspray that's going to make your piece go completely dead flat and it's going to be bumpy if you have problems on your piece and you're like it's not as shiny as I would want it to be that's probably because you've gotten overspray on it so it's really important to start at the top of the piece and work your way down so I'm going to turn my chair around and starting off you see I let off on the cap that way I am being very methodical and come back and overlay on top of what I've already sprayed along the way as I'm working on it I'm gonna give them a nice shake you see already I can see I see a couple of areas I want to be able to just kind of come back on and I'm going to work my way down now you can turn the nozzle up or down depending on in which area that you're working on but you see that I want to make sure that I'm covering it as I'm working my way down because if I started to just move around the chair I would get overspray from a particular area so I'm going to continue on with my legs like this I'm going to come back and I'm going to put an entire first coat on that piece I'm going to allow it to dry about 45 minutes to an hour what's really really important the more glossy the more refined and the more fabulous I want my piece to look it's going to be taking care of it in between the stages so after this is dried for about an hour I'm going to come back with 400 grit sandpaper and lightly come over it all over my finish and then I'm going to put a second coat of my orchid lacquer on top of it now I've come back on my little chair I have two coats of lacquer on it I sand it in between with my 400 grit now as a final application I'm going to come back with what we call our bright idea I love this product because it's great for two things it gives me an added protection for my finish because lacquer is a nitrocellulose lacquer and it will have a tendency to chip with a lot of heavy use or if you have puppies or you have children in your home and as we all do with our family so we want to just protect it and I use the analogy of with your nails when you have your nails done and you get that top coat on top of it it's extra protection and it's extra cloth so I'm going to shake it vigorously just like I did with my lacquer this is completely dried and I'm going to come back the same way again I'm going to start at the very top because I don't want overspray to come down on it and make it go flat so I'm again I'm using my can just like I would a paint brush I'm going to come back I'm overlapping and you'll notice again it's really important don't get too far away but yet you don't want puddling if you get puddling don't freak out I just want you to be able to come back with some 400 grit sandpaper after it's dry lightly sanded out put a nice cling pass over it again and then you're going to go to the next step the cool thing about the lacquer is that I can use it on top of resin I can use it on glass ceramic tile wood things that are already lacquered I also love being able to incorporate it with the one-step paint when I'll come in and I'll use it on fabric I'll lay a stencil on top of it and then I'll spray my lacquer to be able to give details on it so after I've applied my bright idea there's no need to sand afterwards I'm going to be happy with the fact that it's nice and glossy and it's protected I'm just going to allow it to be able to drive for a couple of hours now when you're working with nitrocellulose lacquer sand the bright idea top coats you do want to be able to allow about two to three days for to cure before you start using it moving with it hauling it around in your car this sweet little rescue chair is going to make some preteen young girl really really happy I'm going to put some faux fur on here that way we'll have a pair of them in a room to make a great desk chair so you can take rescued furniture how many of us haven't seen pieces of furniture laying on the side of the road next time you see it just remember how awesome it was that we did finish with this black ring how easy it was just in an afternoon then you get to go enjoy the Magpies you